64 DOI: 10.7252/Journal.02.2016F.04
Laurence W. Wood
The Normative Use of Pentecostal Sanctification in British and
American Methodism
Abstract
This paper sets out to demonstrate that Pentecostal sanctification is a concept rooted in the theology of John Wesley, and that John Wesley and John Fletcher agreed theologically on this concept, contrary to other scholarly opinions frequently voiced on this subject. The view of Pentecostal sanctification was also held to be normative by early Methodists until the rise of liberal theology in the late 19th
century, and this is evidenced by numerous historical references. The view that Pentecostal sanctification arose with either Phoebe Palmer in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, or perhaps with John Fletcher as an outside voice from mainstream Methodism, is refuted and supporting evidence given. This paper was the second of two lectures of the Charles Elmer Cowman Lectures given at Seoul Theological Seminary from October 7-9, 2015 in Seoul, South Korea.
Keywords: Pentecostal sanctification, holiness, John Wesley, John Fletcher,
Methodism, Wesleyan-holiness
Laurence W. Wood, Ph.D is the Frank Paul Morris Professor of Systematic
Introduction
“Adhere closely to the ancient landmarks”
[The Bishops’ Pastoral Address to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1852] 1
There is a misinformed rumor circulating among some Wesley scholars that Pentecostal sanctification was not a common interpretation in early Methodism, but rather it lay dormant in the writings of John Fletcher and only resurfaced into a full blown theology of the baptism with the Spirit with Phoebe Palmer and the Wesleyan-holiness movement in the second half of the 19th century. Another
piece of misinformation is that John Fletcher had no special place of privilege or influence with John Wesley and early Methodism.
The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that these rumors are based on inadequate research. Pentecostal sanctification, including the language of “the baptism with the Spirit,” was prominently featured and promoted after it was fully developed in the writings of John Fletcher and approved by John Wesley until the end of the 19th century as theological liberalism began to take over Methodism.
It is not surprising that Pentecostal sanctification became a normative interpretation in Methodism considering its emphasis in John Fletcher’s The Last
Check. In A Series of Letters Addressed to the Methodist Connection (1810), Thomas Coke
engaged in an extended discussion of Fletcher’s theology, endorsing it and arguing that it “coincides” with Wesley’s view.2 He particularly noted that Fletcher’s Checks
were “acknowledged and disseminated by Wesley” and officially “recognized by the [British] Methodist Conference.”3
The following discussion contains a small sampling of the historiography of early Methodism, and it will serve as a time-line narrative to show that Pentecostal sanctification was continuously embraced in Methodism without the slightest suggestion that there was any difference between John Wesley and Fletcher.
Joseph Benson
It is appropriate to start with Joseph Benson who had written a defense of Wesley’s idea of sanctification in an essay entitled, “The Baptism with the Holy Ghost,” when he and Fletcher were together at Trevecca College. Richard Treffry, one of John Wesley’s preachers, described Benson’s essay in this way: “He had previously published a pamphlet on the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, in which he declared his belief in the infinite efficiency of the eternal Spirit to eradicate the principle of innate depravity, and cleanse the soul from the last remains of sin in this life.”4
I have heard some critics who dislike the idea of Pentecostal sanctification incorrectly say that Benson dropped the idea of Pentecostal sanctification after Wesley cautioned him against equating “receiving the Spirit” and perfection in 1770. We know Benson never did change his mind because he said so. Benson observed on December 4, 1777:
O let me, like Peter, John, and Stephen, become full of faith and the Holy Ghost, that I may be a faithful steward of thy grace, and minister of thy word. Alas! How little progress I make! About six years ago, when at Oxford [at the same time with Fletcher at Trevecca], my convictions, desires, &. were the same that they are now; and then, as now, I longed for the baptism of the Holy Ghost.5
His biographer noted, “this language of humility and desire is that of a soul pressing on to perfection.”6 In a letter May 21, 1776, Benson said: “But, the
principal thing to be thought, talked, and wrote about, is the baptism of the Spirit, or the inward kingdom of God. Oh! my friend, this is but little known among us!”7
In a letter to his bride-to-be (Sarah Thompson) on August 11, 1779, Benson wrote:
Permit me to advise & entreat you not to rest satisfied in your present state: you are undoubtedly called to enjoy greater & better things even to live & walk in the Spirit, experiencing his witness & bringing forth his fruits day by day. Now be you fully persuaded of this: settle in your very heart, that you are called to be an habitation of God thro’ the Spirit; & be satisfied also God alone can put you in possession of this blessing… Be instant in prayer for this one thing that he would lift up the light of his countenance upon you & baptize you with the Spirit [italics mine] of his grace. 8
In 1781, Wesley published an essay in The Arminian Magazine by Benson on “Thoughts on Perfection,” in which Benson noted that “God may, and that he often does, instantaneously so baptize a soul with the Holy Ghost, and with fire, as to purify it from all dross, and refine it like gold, so that it is renewed in love, in pure and
perfect love, as it never was before.”9
One year later in 1782 after Wesley published this essay, Benson published Two Sermons on Sanctification, where he connects the fullness of the Spirit with perfection. Benson writes: “So that, in order to our, full, perfect, and entire Sanctification, we must be filled with the Spirit.10 He invites his hearers to receive “the fullness of that Spirit which is the one source of our sanctification… The Spirit of
truth, holiness, and comfort will take up his abode in us, and enlighten, sanctify, and save us.”11 This emphasis on Pentecostal sanctification is in evidence throughout Benson’s “Two Sermons on Sanctification.” These two sermons were written with Wesley’s approval.12
Benson also continued to use “receive the Holy Spirit” for entire sanctification is his commentary on Acts 19:2, where Benson explained the question, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” to mean whether or not they had received “the sanctifying graces of the Holy Spirit.” Benson then observes: “Many are deceived in this matter, and think they have received the Holy Ghost, when really they have not… We should therefore strictly examine ourselves on this subject; and inquire whether we have received the Holy Ghost since we believed?”13
In 1787, Benson preached a sermon entitled “The Nature and Design of the Gospel of Christ.”14 He showed that the gospel of Christ “offers us a free, full, and universal pardon, but “this leads me to speak of another principal blessing… the ministration of the Spirit [=’dispensation of the Spirit’ in Fletcher].” He explained: “Christ offers to baptize us with the Holy Ghost and with fire, to live in us
that we may live also, to quicken us and raise up and make us fit together with himself in heavenly places.” This means “such abundance of spiritual life that we possess that it shall
overflow.” This means “the Holy Spirit has stripped sin of its disguise… Holiness is now unmasked and blooming in all its beauty, kindles in our hearts the most fervent love to, and inflames our souls with the warmest desires after, an object so incomparably excellent and worthy of our highest regard… Considering his great
and precious promises, which are all given to us, that we may be made partakers of the divine nature, we rejoice in hope of possessing to our entire and endless satisfaction
this holiness so amiable in our eyes.” This “ministration of the Spirit” is “our entire sanctification.” 15
Benson also showed that the “extraordinary gifts” of the Holy Spirit were given to some but the permanent benefit of the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is sanctifying grace.16 In his commentary on Acts 11:24, he defined being “full of the Holy Ghost and faith” meant to be “largely endowed with the sanctifying graces” of the Spirit.17 Likewise with Paul when he was “filled with the Spirit” in Acts 9:17.18
His intimate friendship with Fletcher served as the basis for his being asked by Mary Fletcher and the British Conference in 1801 to write a larger account of the life of John Fletcher than had been given by John Wesley in 1786,19 which was reprinted seventeen times in America. In 1804 in an appendix, he vigorously defended Fletcher’s idea of the “fullness of the Spirit” and the connection between Pentecost and sanctification, saying that Fletcher “expected a Pentecost” that
entailed the idea of being “sanctified wholly.”20 This biography showed that Benson never wavered in his loyalty and respect for Fletcher. Benson was not just reporting on past history when he described Fletcher and their relationship together, as if he no longer advocated for Fletcher’s theology. Rather, he says: “The reader will pardon me, if he thinks I exceed. My heart kindles while I write.” Benson thus described Fletcher: “He was revered; he was loved; he was almost adored… Here I saw a descendent of fallen Adam, so fully raised above the ruins of the fall, that though by the body he was tied down to earth, yet was his whole conversation in heaven: yet was his life, from day to day, hid with Christ in God. Prayer, praise, love, and zeal, all ardent, elevated above what one would think attainable in this state of frailty, were the element in which he continually lived… His full heart would not suffer him to be silent. He must speak” and the students were soon “all in tears, and every heart catched fire from the flame that burned in his soul.” Benson reported that his addresses at the college would be “generally terminated in this. Being convinced that to be filled with the Holy Ghost was a better qualification for the ministry of the Gospel than any classical learning… he used to frequently to say, ‘As many of you as are athirst for this fullness of the Spirit, follow me into my room.” On this, many of us have instantly followed him.”21 Reflecting his current state of mind in 1802, Benson said: “I was then much athirst” for “the baptism of the Holy Ghost.” 22
Partly because Benson’s biography was so widely read throughout Methodism for many years afterwards, Fletcher’s idea of the baptism with the Spirit was to become a widely used description of entire sanctification.
When Benson was the editor of The Arminian Magazine (1803-1821), he published a sermon in 1817 by the famous Jesuit preacher Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704), “Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost.” His text, “They were all filled with the Holy Ghost—Acts ii.4.”23 Remarkably, this sermon corresponded exactly with Fletcher’s and Benson’s idea about the connection between Pentecost and holiness. This text was a basis for the Roman Catholic rite of confirmation, which symbolized the idea of a personal Pentecost subsequent to one’s water baptism. The rite of water baptism symbolized Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (Easter) and represented one’s new life in Christ. Confirmation symbolized the baptism of the Spirit (Pentecost) and represented one’s appropriation of sanctification. The appropriateness of this sermon being published in The Arminian Magazine was that Fletcher had already shown the close connection between Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection and the rite of confirmation.24 The distinction between water baptism signifying forgiveness of sins (Easter) and a subsequent baptism with the Spirit (laying on of hands), signifying sanctification (Pentecost) was an interpretation extending back to the earliest days of the Church and still is practiced
in the Roman Catholic Church, and it has now been incorporated into the baptism liturgy of most Protestant churches.25 So the idea of two stages of saving grace was not a mere innovation of John Wesley and John Fletcher, but had already been the main interpretation in the history of the Christian church.
Significantly, this Roman Catholic preacher, Bourdaloue, said nothing about the ritual of confirmation, but his emphasis was upon “the interior baptism of the Holy Ghost”26 and “how to enter into the full meaning of… the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”27 Citing from the Early Church Father Chrysostom, he shows that “as fire has a power infinitely more active, more penetrating, and more purifying than water; so by the coming of the Holy Ghost, the hearts of men were to be purified in a manner much more perfect than they had been by the first baptism of Jesus Christ.” He further writes:
After the baptism of Jesus Christ, the apostles, though initiated into the faith by that ordinance, still remained very imperfect. According to the report, the gospel makes of them, they were still ambitious, interested, jealous; dissensions were still seen among them, and they fell into weaknesses, from which the elementary baptism of the Son of God, had not preserved them. But scarcely have they received the Holy Ghost, than they become men wholly spiritual, men detached from the world, men superior to every selfish interest; men not only holy, but of a consummate holiness; men empty of themselves, and full of God in one word, men perfect and irreprehensible.”28
Bourdaloue says this baptism of the Spirit is not for those who “are carnal,”29 but rather it is through “the Holy Spirit our hearts are filled with love.”30 In conclusion, he prays: “Grant, Lord, the same precious gift to my dear auditors. Give thy benediction to my word, or rather, to thy word. Pour out upon all this assembly the plenitude of thy Spirit. And thou, O Spirit of my God, principle of every grace, author of all holiness, come and enlighten and fortify us, and seal thy believing family unto the day of eternal redemption.”31 Benson’s decision to publish this Jesuit sermon was apparently intended to show the broad ecumenical basis of the Methodist belief in Pentecostal sanctification was not a mere innovation by Wesley and Fletcher.
In a collection of his sermons (1827-1828), Benson maintains that Pentecost is the basis of Christian perfection. Benson says that the gospel “ perfects our sanctification… and the Holy Ghost, promised in all his fullness, imparting this great blessing, that is, a purgation from sin,” and “not resting till we [are] ‘an habitation of God through the Spirit;’ and till we ‘dwell in God, and God in us.’”32 Benson’s emphasis is: “Perfect holiness is the effect of the fullness of the Spirit.”33
Being “full of faith and the Holy Ghost” means to be “perfected in holiness” and “wholly sanctified.”34
Another remarkable achievement of Benson was to edit and publish John Fletcher’s complete works in 1806. In the “preface” to this edition, Benson shows the same kind of respect for Fletcher that he had when they were together at Trevecca. In an astonishing way, Benson placed Fletcher’s writings only in second place of importance to the Bible ahead of John Wesley: “No writings that we have known, save those of the Divine Oracles, appear to us more adapted to answer the great ends of Christianity, vis. To bring lost sinners to God, and build them up in faith and holiness.”35 Benson said the General Conference “ordered the
present Edition to be prepared for the press, and offered to the public as soon as convenient.”36
Benson wrote a commentary on the various books of the Bible between 1811-1818. In his New Testament commentary on Acts 2, Benson explained that “the incorporation of the Christian Church”37 occurred on the day of Pentecost
when the one hundred twenty believers in the Upper Room were “united in their desire and expectation of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the power from on high, which Christ had promised them; and in praying earnestly and importunately for it whenever they met together.”38 When they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
this whole company [of one hundred and twenty believers] were abundantly replenished with both the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit… They were filled with the graces of the Spirit, and were more than ever under its sanctifying influences; were now holy, and heavenly, and spiritual; more weaned from this world, and better acquainted with the other. They were more filled with the comforts of the Spirit, rejoiced more than ever in the love of Christ, and the hope of heaven, and in it all their griefs and fears were swallowed up.39
He defined baptism with water as a symbol of “repentance” and being “justified,”40
but the baptism with the Spirit denoted sanctifying grace, as a universal benefit of Pentecost, although some (though not everyone) also received “extraordinary gifts of the Spirit” for preaching and spreading the gospel.41
Jabez Bunting (president of the British Methodist Conference) said that Benson’s “opinions were the same, on all great doctrinal questions, with those which are well known as characterizing the living ministry and printed works of Mr. Wesley and Mr. Fletcher.”42 The use of “Mr. Wesley and I” are often found in
The Checks and reflect John Wesley’s approval.43 Likewise throughout the history
without the slightest suggestion that Fletcher’s view of Pentecostal sanctification was incompatible with John Wesley.
William Branwell
If the Memoirs of the Life and Ministry of William Bramwell is any indication, then the subject of the “baptism of the Spirit” was common among Wesley’s ordinary preachers. He became one of Wesley’s preachers in 1787, and he often used Pentecostal phrases, such as “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” and being “filled with the Spirit,”and he strongly promoted entire sanctification, encouraging his hearers to give public testimony to this experience.44
John Pawson
John Pawson was Wesley’s successor at City Road Church, London.45
Pawson was greatly impressed with Fletcher, and he embraced Fletcher’s idea of Pentecostal sanctification. He admired Fletcher’s preaching effectiveness, noticing that more people came to hear Fletcher than Wesley. He also noticed that he had read an early draft of Fletcher’s Equal Check (which contained Fletcher’s first fully developed idea of Pentecostal sanctification). He observed: “I think he will set that doctrine [of perfection] in so Scriptural a light, as to stop the mouths of gainsayers.”46
In A Serious and Affectionate Address to the Junior Preachers in the Methodist
Connection (September 25, 1798), Pawson asked: “Are we not called of God to preach
a full, free, present, and compleat [complete] Salvation… and being filled with the Spirit, we may be blameless and harmless… This appears to me the more necessary, because there are many that believe and preach Justification by faith, who seem little acquainted with the nature of sanctification.”47 Adam Clarke, in his eulogy of
Pawson described him, as “a man of irreproachable integrity, of unspotted life” whom “God honoured” with “the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and with such a victory and triumph over sin, death, and the grave, as would have been glorious even in apostolic times.”48
Henry Moore and Mary Fletcher
In the same year of 1817 when Benson published the Pentecost sermon by Bourdaloue in The Arminian Magazine which linked the “baptism with the Spirit” with “men perfect and irreprehensible” and “filled with love,” Henry Moore edited and published the Life of Mary Fletcher, which contained the same emphasis. In his preface, he recounts that John Wesley was the founder of Methodism who led a group of Oxford students in search of holiness. He asked, “But did they spend
their strength for naught? Were they disappointed of their hope? Were not a holy people raised up? Let the Life of Mrs. Fletcher speak.”49 His biography of Mary Fletcher emphasizes that the key to being a holy people is through the baptism with the Spirit. Typical of this idea of Pentecostal sanctification is her diary entry for December 4, 1794: “This is the baptism of the Spirit which hath purified my heart from all sin! 50
Moore was one of the closest and most trusted friends of Wesley, spending entire days with him as his clerical assistant and traveling with him extensively.51 No one knew Methodism better than he did, and no one knew John Wesley’s views about his preachers than he did. Moore also said this about her husband, John Fletcher, in his preface: “that great man, whose praise is in all the Churches; whose admirable writings will live while piety and learning are honoured in the earth; and which have forced even those who did not know his piety, or affected to lament that such
talents should be so connected, to acknowledge his great superiority.”52
Henry Moore and Thomas Rutherford
One of Wesley’s well-educated preachers was Thomas Rutherford. He was the brother-in-law of Henry Moore who was commissioned to write the eulogy of Rutherford for the Conference’s Minutes after his death in 1806.53 Rutherford said
that he had a desire for a long time to meet Fletcher, but then in August, 1783, he got acquainted with him when he came to Dublin with his wife: “I had an opportunity of being in company with him almost every day, morning, noon, and night; and of hearing him preach five or six times a week for nearly two months; which have ever viewed as a signal instance of the divine condescension and goodness towards an unworthy creature. —At the recollection of those days, (for they were days of the Son of Man!) my heart overflows with gratitude to the Giver of every good and perfect gift.”54 He reported that Fletcher’s preaching theme was on “Pentecost,”
“the promise of the Spirit,” and “the indwelling power and fullness of the Holy Ghost.” He also noted: “He was the most devoted, the most heavenly, the most Christ like man I ever saw.”55 This high regard for Fletcher was typical of all of
Wesley’s preachers, as well as Wesley himself.
Moore reported that Rutherford recorded in his diary (March 15, 1776) of having been baptized with the Spirit, utilizing Wesley’s idea of Canaan land as a symbol of perfect love that was fulfilled with the fullness of the sanctifying Spirit on the day of Pentecost:
My present state may, I think, properly be called, a panting for a greater fullness of the life and spirit of Jesus. I live in sight of the land of perfect love. It is indeed a good and a pleasant land—a land of light and life, and peace and power; of holy rest, and sweet communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And yet, alas, I cannot enter! How long, O Lord, how long shall I wander to and fro, comparatively in the wilderness? Help me, O help me, to go up and possess it! Bid me wash and be clean. Plunge me in the swelling Jordan of thy most precious blood! Baptise, O baptise me with the fullness of thy sanctifying Spirit!56
In a letter addressed to the Methodist preachers who had gathered for their Annual Conference in London in 1806, Rutherford encouraged them “to apply to him in good earnest for power from on high; the baptism and continual anointing of the Holy Ghost. Mr. Wesley justly observes” that “every preacher of the gospel” should recognize that “the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.” Notice here that Rutherford connected Fletcher’s idea of the baptism with the Spirit with Wesley’s exhortation, confirming that in the minds of the preachers there was no difference between Fletcher and Wesley.57
Rutherford is known primarily for his work in abridging Fletcher’s Last
Check, under the title, Christian Perfection, An Extract from John Fletcher. It was published
in Philadelphia in 1796, and it was immediately reprinted in the same year. Wesley had once encouraged Fletcher not to make The Last Check too long because it would come into “fewer hands,” 58 and it was for this reason that Rutherford abridged
it—so that more people would be encouraged to read it.59 It was also printed as
a pocketsize book for convenience. Rutherford’s “preface” indicates that Fletcher was considered to be the unquestioned authority on Wesley’s doctrinal system. He noted that “Christian perfection, according to the account which both Mr. Wesley and Mr. Fletcher have given of it” is what “the Methodists believe and teach.”60 His
reason for making this extract was because Fletcher offered “a clear, distinct, and Scriptural point of view.”
The opening part of this extract defines the meaning of Christian perfection, as “the pure love of God, shed abroad in the heart of established believers by the Holy Ghost, which is abundantly given them under the fullness of the Christian dispensation.”61 It immediately connects Fletcher’s emphasis on
Pentecostal perfection with extensive citations from Wesley’s A Plain Account of
Christian Perfection. A dominant motif in this abridged edition is that Pentecost and
Henry Moore
Thomas Rutherford, in a letter to Henry Moore, reminded him of what he had once said to him about too many Christians still living as Pre-Pentecostal believers: “For some years past I have seen much I could not approve of among us as Christians, and brethren, and have thought a hundred times of an expression you mentioned to me of Mr. Fletcher’s that ‘he though the generality of Christians are not in a spiritual state, superior to that of the disciples, before the day of Pentecost.’” 63
When Henry Moore was near death, he was asked: “How many of your old friends are gone before you into glory?” With “animation,” he replied: “I have known some among the best in the world: the Wesleys, Mr. And Mrs. Fletcher, and many others of the very salt of the earth, but less distinguished in their sphere of usefulness; I shall see them all again, and with power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”64 It is typical among the early
Methodists to place Fletcher in the same category as the Wesley brothers as one of their leaders and models.
Adam Clarke and Mary Cooper--A Case Study of the Pentecostal Preaching of the Early Methodists
The consensual understanding of the baptism with the Spirit in early Methodism is succinctly expressed in Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Book of Acts. He writes:
John baptized with water, which was a sign of penitence, in reference to the remission of sin; but Christ baptizes with the Holy Ghost, for the destruction of sin [=entire sanctification]… John’s baptism was in reference to the spiritual kingdom; but Christ’s baptism established and maintained that kingdom.65
In a pastoral letter (Feb. 18, 1814) to a dying member, Clarke reminded him that Jesus had died “to purify you unto himself.” He encouraged him to “be a partaker of his holiness. Claim every promise of God as your own.” He concludes with his exhortation: “May he baptize you with the fullest baptism of his Spirit!”66
Clarke edited and published the Memoirs of the Mrs. Mary Cooper in 1814. She was the daughter of a wealthy family and “her understanding was sound, her mind carefully cultivated” and her “piety deep and rational,” according to Clarke.67
Though she was not a preacher, her memoirs were used to promote the message of the Methodists, and they show how a new convert to Methodism soon appropriated
the idea of Pentecostal perfection. In 1809, she began to attend Methodist meetings where the first preachers that she heard were Clarke and Coke, and soon thereafter she heard Henry Moore and Joseph Benson preach.68 She considered Henry Moore
and his wife, Ann Young Moore, to be her “best advisers.”69 She noted that the
sermons of Clarke and Coke “made a deep impression on my mind,” with their emphasis upon “the connection of religion and reason” and “the inhabitation of the Spirit of God.”70 She was especially attracted to the Methodist doctrine of
holiness. She wrote:
My mind is now, I think, made up as to the scriptural nature and holy tendency of the doctrines Mr. Wesley embraced and enforced. I have been happy in the investigation; and am most firmly persuaded that his view of Christian perfection is at once the privilege and the happiness of the Christian… This blessing is only bestowed on those who believe, and who earnestly pray and wait for this full redemption. Although I am not yet the happy possessor of it, I am greatly encouraged by that promise, Psalm cxiv.12. ‘He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him.”71
She rediscovered the meaning of Holy Communion by attending a Methodist chapel, and she realized its importance as a means of sanctifying grace and enabling her to love God with all heart.72 Here in the sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper she was led to pray for “the gift of the Holy Spirit” to sanctify her: “Do I not ask with importunity for the gift of Thy Spirit to enable me to perform my resolutions, to overcome every sin, and to seek for entire sanctification?”73
On December 29, 1809, she came to a point of accepting “the indwelling of the Spirit.” She wrote in her diary: “In tender mercy He has heard my prayer: I feel convinced that sin must be a strange work to the believer; it is incompatible with the indwelling of the Spirit of God: I long to feel deeper the Spirit’s influence; I want to be filled with that holy love… O may I more fully comprehend the large extent of that salvation Christ came to bestow, even a deliverance from the power of all sin.”74 The Spirit’s “indwelling” and “baptism” became the focus of her developing
spiritual life. On January 24, 1810, she wrote: “I wish more powerfully to feel the necessity of constantly seeking the influence of the Holy Spirit, to renovate my nature, to baptize me afresh… If He has been, and is manifested to my soul, sin will be destroyed.”75 On April 30, 1811, she prays for “the constant indwelling of
the Holy Spirit” as the fulfillment of her desire to be united with Christ.76 She
used another popular metaphor in Methodism for holiness when she described this union with Christ in terms of the abiding witness of the Spirit: “This can be found only when the Spirit takes up His abode in the heart.”77 She further stated:
“When the Comforter takes up His abode in my heart, then all will be subdued to my Heavenly King.”78 Another term that she used for holiness was “happy in God.”
This appears on back of an admission ticket that Henry Moore had given her to attend a Methodist society. She wrote: “Happy in God, and in possession of the peace which passeth understanding.”79
Though only a newcomer to Methodism, the Pentecostal interpretation of entire sanctification is set forth in her diaries: She wrote On August 24, 1810:
It is His will that, justified freely by His death, we should be sanctified in body, soul and spirit, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, ‘the Gift of the Father,’ which he promised should abundantly descend after His resurrection.80
Mary Cooper became ill and depressed shortly before she gave birth to a son. Adam Clarke explained that her depression resulted from her illness, not from spiritual decline. However, she was unable to understand this situation.81 In this
state of confusion, she wrote this prayer in her diary on March 11, 1812: O Lord, I will renew my dedication to Thy service. Baptize me afresh with Thy Holy Spirit, and sanctify bodily affiction. O may it be the one desire of my soul, to gain more and more of the Divine image, and to be increasing in holiness and meetness for the eternal world!82
She died on June 22, 1812, at the age of 26, from complications arising from childbirth. After less than three years of being a Methodist, her diaries reveal the theology she had learned from these early Methodist preachers, especially Adam Clarke, Thomas Coke, and Henry Moore.
This diary of Mary Cooper shows that it was natural for Methodists to speak of entire sanctification in terms of Pentecostal phraseology.83 Because Clarke
reported that he heard John Wesley preach on “the baptism with the Holy Spirit” on different occasions,84 one can gather that Wesley is the one who had inclined
Clarke to think in these terms, Clarke probably first heard this idea of Pentecostal perfection from Wesley’s own preaching at the 1783 Bristol Conference when he became a member in full connection. And if Mary Cooper interpreted Christian perfection in Pentecostal terms, it was likely from Adam Clarke, Thomas Moore, and Thomas Coke that she first heard this preaching theme.
Richard Treffry and “the Baptism with the Holy Spirit”
Richard Treffry (1771-1842), who was admitted into full connection in British Methodism the year after Wesley died (1792)85 was a frequent spokesman for
Christian perfection, linking it with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. The Methodist
Magazine contained a sermon by Richard Treffry on Christian perfection, which
referred to Fletcher’s view that even though one may be fully sanctified through a gradual process, ”there is a precise moment when the work is completed.”86 The
Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review also published another sermon by Treffry,
“An Address to the Young Ministers,” which was originally delivered August 6, 1834 at the City Road Chapel, London.87 He urged them to be “seeking deeper
baptisms, and larger effusions, of the Holy Ghost” because otherwise “sin may be pardoned and subdued, but it is not wholly extirpated.”88 He reminded them of
their obligation “to preach the doctrines of Methodism,” which included calling everyone to experience full sanctification. Using Fletcher’s categories, he said:
And, in order to encourage your hearers to come to the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and to avail themselves of all the benefits of redemption, never forget in all your ministrations the doctrine of a Divine influence; that God will give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him; that Christianity is a dispensation of the Spirit; the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost being given to us, and to our children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.89
Treffry published the memoirs of his son who died at the age of 33,90
and these memoirs show that the “baptism of the Spirit” was a common theme. In a letter to his mother on November 28, 1837, his son wrote: “But I want more abundant light, a more copious baptism of the Holy Spirit, and a more perfect conformity to the divine image.”91 In a letter to Henry Davies on November 30,
1837, Richard Treffry, Jr., writes: “Best of all, my mind is kept calm and happy, waiting for a more perfect manifestation of the love of God before I go hence, and daily crying for a renewed baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
Richard Watson (1781-1833)
Watson was the first systematic theologian of Methodism. This is because his Theological Institutes formalized Methodist doctrine into a textbook of distinct topics and explained their connection with logical precision. He became a preacher at the Conference of 1797 at the early age of 16 and was appointed to a circuit.92
Though an Englishman, his writings were influential in America and became part of the conference course of study for ministers until 1876.93
In 1830, Richard Watson (the first systematic theologian in Methodism whose writings were required reading for all Methodist preachers) wrote: “The Entire sanctification of the soul from sin is held forth, both as necessary to qualify us for heaven, and as the result of that baptism of the Spirit which we receive in answer to prayer, and through faith in Christ.”94
In a letter to his dying father, Watson encouraged him to: “Proceed to obtain the full sanctification of your nature. It is not death, but grace, that must destroy our sin, and make us meet for heaven. Have faith in the promise of the Father to send the Holy Spirit in all the power he exerted in the day of pentecost, to burn up the very root of corruption, and fill you in a moment with all the love and power of God, making you one with Christ, and an entirely new creature.”95
In his preaching, Watson called his hearers to experience the “baptism of fire” which effects within the believer “an unquenchable love” and “purity.” He showed that this Pentecostal event was not just for the disciples, but every believer can “now” experience “a constant, though secret, Pentecost.”96 He exhorted
his hearers: “Christ now baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”97 This
personalized Pentecost today means that one can have “purged from the heart of man all its stains of sin.”98
Without the slightest suggestion of any difference between Wesley and Fletcher, Watson expressed the unanimous view among Methodists everywhere that John Wesley and Fletcher were seen as having the same interpretation: “If the doctrine of Christian perfection, as taught by Mr. Wesley and Mr. Fletcher, be true, as we all believe it is, I fear we do not give that prominence to it in our preaching which we ought to do: and that some of us do not seek to realize it in our own experience, as it is our privilege and duty.”99
The 1784 Christmas Conference at Baltimore and Bishop Francis Asbury
When the Methodist Episcopal Church was established in American in 1784, Wesley and Fletcher were cited as the joint authorities on Methodist doctrine. In
The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, with explanatory notes, Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury wrote: “We would likewise declare our real
sentiments on the scripture doctrine of election and reprobation; on the infallible, unconditional perseverance of all who ever have believed, or ever shall; and on the doctrine of Christian perfection. Far from wishing you to be ignorant of any of our doctrines, or any part of our discipline, we desire you to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the whole.”100 Asbury and Coke encouraged the preachers not to
try to write further explanations of these doctrines, but to preach what they had learned from Wesley and Fletcher: “A few good writers in one church are quite sufficient, especially in ours, which has already been honored with a Wesley and a Fletcher.”101
Bishop Asbury introduced Fletcher’s writings as textbook reading for his preachers,102 and he was responsible for the first American edition of Fletcher’s
works. They remained part of the conference course of study until they were removed in 1880,103 as theological liberalism swept throughout Methodism. As a
young man Bishop Asbury knew and heard Fletcher preach even before he knew John Wesley.104 In a letter (December 31, 1801) to the Methodist book agent, Ezekiel
Cooper, Asbury instructed him to publish the writings of Fletcher and Wesley even placing Fletcher’s name before Wesley’s. 105
Wesley had begun to publish the complete Works of John William Fletcher in 1788, which was not completed until 1795. This 1788-1795 British edition was being published at the same time in America. The first and second volumes of the “First American Edition” of Fletcher’s works were published in 1791 by Joseph Crukshank in Philadelphia; Crukshank published the third volume in 1792; Parry Hall published the fourth volume in 1793; and Henry Tuckniss published volume five in 1794 and volume six in 1796. All of these were printed in Philadelphia.106
The Last Check (Philadelphia, 1796) was reprinted in the same year as
Rutherford’s abridged edition entitled Christian Perfection, An Extract from John Fletcher, for the Methodist Episcopal Church. Rutherford’s edition had eight reprints for the Methodist Episcopal Church between 1837 and 1875, and was widely cited by Methodist writers throughout the nineteenth century. Interestingly enough, there were thirteen imprints of Fletcher’s various writings in America, including five reprints of his complete Works, from 1796 before Wesley’s complete Works were first published in 1826.107 Fletcher’s complete Checks to Antinomianism were reprinted
for the Methodist Episcopal Church eight different times in the nineteenth century. His complete Works were reprinted twenty two times throughout the nineteenth century with the last edition being in 1883.108
John Wesley first wrote The Life of John Fletcher, and then Joseph Benson rewrote it in 1804 at the request of the British General Conference. It was subsequently published twenty seven times, with the 1898 edition being the last one. Seventeen of those editions were for The Methodist Episcopal Church, and ten editions were for British Methodism.109 Fletcher’s The Portrait of St. Paul was
published after his death, and it was reprinted nine times, mostly in New York for the Methodist Episcopal Church. There were at least 174 different printings of Fletcher’s various books in the nineteenth century.110
This remarkably large number of reprints of his writings shows that his doctrinal views formed the thinking of Methodism from its inception. Abel Stevens, a nineteenth-century Methodist historian, claimed that Fletcher’s writings “control the opinions of the largest and most effective body of evangelical clergymen of the earth… They have been more influential in the denomination than Wesley’s own controversial writings on the subject [Antinomianism].”111 In “An
Address of the Editors,” published in The [American] Methodist Magazine in 1823,112
Fletcher’s writings are referenced as the authoritative doctrinal standard. In 1828, an editorial comment found in The Christian Advocate noted: “I consider Mr. Wesley and Mr. Fletcher as standing foremost, perhaps, in the Christian world, as faithful interpreters of the mind and will of God to man, as revealed in the Scriptures of truth” and added a further comment about Fletcher’s Checks: “Oh what, an invaluable work!” This editorial particularly cited from Fletcher’s treatise, Christian Perfection, to refute critics. 113
An extensive review in The Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review of Fletcher’s Portrait of St. Paul was given in 1831. It affirms Fletcher’s role in establishing Methodist doctrine: “After the Holy Scriptures, and, in subordination to these, the works of Mr. John Wesley, the writings of John Fletcher are held next in estimation, we believe, by the whole body of Wesleyan Methodists throughout the world.”114
This book represented Fletcher’s most mature thoughts, highlighting the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and this emphasis was noted in the review. This review also believed that Fletcher’s writings were appreciated throughout Methodism.115 Typical
of this attitude toward Fletcher is an early twentieth century Methodist bishop and author who referred to Fletcher as “the thought of Wesley voiced by Fletcher.”116 Some Samplings of Pentecostal Sanctification in British and American Methodist Publications
It would have been clear to any reader of The Arminian Magazine that Fletcher’s idea of Pentecostal sanctification was official Methodist doctrine with the numerous publications of his letters and writings. When John Wesley was still alive, he included numerous letters and excerpts from Fletcher’s writings in The Arminian
Magazine. These references included Fletcher’s use of “baptism with the Holy
Ghost and fire”117 and “fullness of the Spirit”118 to denote Christian perfection.
Fletcher’s life and writings are mentioned in every annual volume of the British edition of The Arminian Magazine for one hundred years until 1878 (except for three volumes), 119 including its continuation in The Methodist Magazine and
of The Arminian Magazine, The Methodist Magazine, and The Methodist Quarterly Review with the same regularity.
In 1790, Francis Asbury published the second volume of the American issue of The Arminian Magazine promoting Fletcher as “our almost inimitable friend” and providing an extract from Wesley’s account of his life and death.120
This extract from John Wesley’s biography began with this biblical quotation from Acts 5:38, 39, as a particular reference to Fletcher: “If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught: But if it be of GOD, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against GOD.”121 John Wesley offered this personal
comment:
No man in England has had so long an acquaintance with Mr. Fletcher as myself. Our acquaintance began almost as soon as his arrival in London, about the year 1752, before he entered into holy orders, or (I believe) had any such intention. And it continued uninterrupted between thirty and forty years, even ‘till it pleased GOD to take him to himself. Nor was ours a slight or ordinary acquaintance; but we were of one heart and of one soul. We had no secrets between us for many years; we did not purposely hide any thing from each other. From time to time he consulted me, and I him, on the most important occasions. And he constantly professed, not only much esteem but (what I valued far more) much affection… I therefore think myself obliged by the strongest ties, to pay this small tribute to his memory.122
With Francis Asbury’s promotion of Fletcher as “our almost inimitable friend” and Wesley’s unqualified approval of Fletcher as his intimate friend and associate in ministry, it was only normal that those who read the magazine would consider Fletcher as their guide to doctrinal beliefs. As the reader continued to read Wesley’s biography of Fletcher, Wesley would soon inform them that Fletcher’s “favourite subject was, The promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Ghost… ‘We must not be content,’ said he, ‘to be only cleansed from sin: we must be filled with the Spirit.’”123
With John Wesley’s promotion of Fletcher in the British edition and Asbury’s promotion in the American edition, it is thus not surprising to find Pentecostal sanctification as a common understanding from the beginning.
In 1793, The Arminian Magazine published a letter of Fletcher addressed to his congregation at Madeley (1777):
If I your poor unworthy shepherd am smitten, be not scattered; but rather be more closely gathered unto Christ, and keep near each other in faith and love, till you all receive our second Comforter and Advocate, in the glory of his fullness. You know I mean the Holy Spirit, the third Person in our Covenant God. He is with you¸ but if you plead the promise of the
Father, which, says Christ, you have heard of me, he will be in you. He
will fill your souls with his light, love, and glory, according to that verse which we have so often sung together,
“Refining fire go through my heart, Illuminate my soul, Scatter thy life through every part,
And sanctify the whole.”
This indwelling of the Comforter, perfects the mystery of sanctification in the believer’s soul. This is the highest blessing of the Christian Covenant on earth. Rejoicing in God our Creator, in God our Redeemer, let us look for the full comfort of God our Sanctifier. So shall we live and die in the faith, going on from faith to faith, from strength to strength, from comfort to comfort, till Christ is all in all, --to us all.124
In 1798, The Arminian Magazine published a letter of John Fletcher to his congregation at Madeley, written 1783: “O for a deeper Baptism of the Spirit! I want that promise more fully accomplished, ‘I and my Father will come, and will make our abode with you.’”125 This particular entry was listed in the index of The
Arminian Magazine under the category: “From Mr. Fletcher, on the baptism of the Spirit.” This focus of his letter on the baptism with the Spirit was thus the reason for publishing this letter in The Arminian Magazine.
The Arminian Magazine (1809) published the Memoirs of Mr. Evans who recorded in diary for September 2: “I had to baptize almost fifty persons, more than half of whom were advanced above the years of childhood, and two of them every old men. I have cause to believe that many of them were earnestly seeking to be baptized with the Holy Ghost.”126
The Arminian Magazine (1817) carried the memoirs of Miss Bunting, who
“was very conversant with the writings of the Rev. Mr. Wesley, and Mr. Fletcher.”127
As she was dying, she said to her mother: “O mother, I am going to heaven, I wish you were going with me; but you will not be long after me. I shall see Mr. Wesley. Mr. Fletcher, St. Paul, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets, and Martyrs.” “ Yes,” added Mrs. M. “and Jesus the Mediator.”128
The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine gave this report about Mrs. Ludlam on
Spirit, and to fill her with joy and love.”129 In the same issue was a report of Mrs.
Lydia who died on July 13, 1821: “From the time of her conversion, she manifested great tenderness of conscience, and anxiously desired the entire sanctification of her nature. She read the works of Wesley, Fletcher, and others, upon that subject, and often conversed respecting it with experienced Christians: and about five years before her death, she obtained a fuller baptism of the Spirit, which enabled her to love the Lord her GOD with all her heart.”130
In 1807, Elijah Sabin published two sermons on Christian Perfection,
Displayed and the Objections Obviated. He was admitted into the Conference in 1801 of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. He says Christian perfection, “not only implies a cleansing… but the being filled with the pure and perfect love of God.” He cites Acts 2:4, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,” along with Acts 4:8, 31, as well as Ephesians 5:18. He said: “A variety of others might be quoted, but these are sufficient to prove, to every unprejudiced mind, that God will so fill the souls of believers with his Holy Spirit as that all sin shall be destroyed.”131
The Methodist Magazine in 1809 contains the testimony of Peter Haslam:
“Yesterday the Lord was very graciously present with us at our Love feast. Many bore a very clear testimony respecting entire sanctification. If I am convicted of evil, it is by that heart piercing law, ‘Thou shall not covet.’ The desire of certain things even now possesses me . . .. Nothing less than a glorious baptism of thy Spirit can save me: O let that baptism now descend!”132
On August 10, 1818, Wilbur Fisk experienced “perfect love” through the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” through listening to a sermon preached by Timothy Merritt on “Christian perfection” at a campmeeting on Cape Cod.133 Fisk was of
the educational leaders and was the first president of Wesleyan University. Fisk highlighted in his preaching and writing that full sanctification means purification from sin through being filled with the Spirit of God.134
We know from the written diary of Joseph Pilmore that he, as one of the first British missionaries to America (along with Richard Boardman), preached on the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1770. He had been a close friend of John Fletcher with whom he had many conversations when Fletcher regularly traveled from Madeley to Trevecca.135 On June 3, 1770, Pilmore wrote: “In the evening, I
declared to a very large and attentive audience, ‘He shall Baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire’ (Matt 3:11) and had good reason to believe God fulfilled the promis[e] to many of the hearers by the comforts of his heavenly love.” 136
Pilmore wrote frequently about the importance of Christian perfection in his diaries, and we know that this theme was prominent in the preaching of his close friend and preaching partner, Captain Webb. Though we do not have many sermons
to indicate to us the details of the preaching of many of John Wesley’s preachers, we do have the gist of the way that Captain Webb preached on this subject, thanks to Henry Moore, Wesley’s clerical assistant, who in his reminiscences about the older preachers once gave the following report at a social gathering, noting as well that Webb’s manner of speaking in metaphors was not always so sophisticated. His preaching showed that it was common to talk about the difference between the disciples’ experience of being justified before Pentecost and fully sanctified after Pentecost.
Captain Webb was a red-hot preacher. He took some text about the Holy Ghost out of one of the epistles and went on to this effect: “The words of the text were written by the apostles after the act of justification had passed on them. But you see, my friends, this was not enough for them. They must receive the Holy Ghost after this. So must you. You must be sanctified. But you are not. You are only Christians in part. You have not received the Holy Ghost. I know it. I can feel your spirits hanging about me like so much dead flesh.”137
Henry Moore also reported that Thomas Coke, after he was ordained priest in the Church of England, “was conscious that he did not possess the peace and joy of the indwelling Spirit” and he sought out one of Wesley’s preachers and he was transformed. He read Fletcher’s Checks,138 and noted how helpful Fletcher’s
Essay on Truth had been to him.139 In his commentary on the Book of Acts, Coke
affirmed Pentecostal sanctification, affirming that being “baptized with the Spirit” denoted “purity of heart” and that the baptism with the Spirit “sanctifies the soul, by abolishing all sordid inclinations, by purging away the multiplicity of carnal desires.140
Nathan Bangs, the first official historian of American Methodism, provided several reports on the early Methodist preachers as being baptized with the Spirit. In his report of this Pentecost emphasis, Bangs noted that in 1799 that the “baptism with the Spirit” was a particular focus of Methodist preachers. Bangs noted, “The doctrine… of sanctification, or holiness of heart and life… was pressed upon them as their present privilege… It was this baptism of the Holy Ghost which fired and filled the hearts of God’s ministers at that time.”141 Bangs described a great revival
that swept through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, and stated “that most of the preachers had received a new baptism of the Holy Spirit--like that which had been showered upon Calvin Wooster, and others in Canada, the preceding year [1799]; and wherever they went they carried the holy fire with them, and God wrought wonders by their instrumentality.”142
In the first volume of The Methodist Magazine (New York), a report of “A Short Account of Cow-Harbour Camp-Meeting” in Long Island, New York
for August 11, 1818, was given, explaining that many were converted and others “were groaning for full redemption in the blood of the Lamb. While engaged in this exercise, some of the preachers were baptized afresh with the Holy Ghost and fire; and their cup run over with love to God, and to the souls of men.”143
The second volume of the Methodist Magazine (1819) in the United States also carried this entry from the “Memoir of Mr. William Appleton”: “Feb. 1, 1812 Sheffield. “I am this day waiting for a double baptism of the Holy Spirit… My soul is more than ever dead to the world.”144 In this same volume, it was reported,
“the Methodist ministers have the greatest encouragement to enter upon this work. They have seen the proof of this doctrine in all the Scriptures, especially through the medium of the incomparable writings of Messrs. Wesley and Fletcher. This doctrine every Methodist minister professes to believe.”145
In 1822, Mrs. Law of Yorkshire, England, testified to having “received a richer baptism of the Holy Spirit” and “her dedication to God… was more complete and constant”146... She also in her experience realized the truth of the words of the
beloved disciple, ‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear;’ and believing it to be her privilege to be cleansed from all unrighteousness… and soon, to her unspeakable joy, that the Spirit of God entirely sanctified her nature.”147
The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine for August 1824 reported the testimony
of George Clark who sought “complete deliverance from ‘the carnal mind.’ While he was earnestly pleading with the Lord, he received a deeper baptism of the sanctifying Spirit; and from that time to the closing scene of life, he walked in the full light of God’s countenance.”148
In the January issue of 1824 of The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, an extract of a letter, dated April 19, 1824 was included: “Preachers, Class-Leaders, and Members, have received a fresh baptism of heavenly love and zeal; many are athirst for the fullness of his sanctifying grace; and some have received that perfect love which casteth out fear.”149
In the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine (1849), a biographical account was given of Mrs. Brockelsby, noting that “after eighteen years after her conversion… she received a richer baptism of spiritual life and power and was enabled humbly but firmly to testify that Christ had all her heart, and that his precious blood had cleansed her from all sin. This perfect love she never lost: it remained with her though life.” She acquainted herself with Methodist doctrine through consulting both Wesley and Fletcher. “Profiting as she did by what is sometimes called ‘Methodist doctrine,’ as preached from the pulpit, in her hours of retirement she made herself familiar with the principal works in which it is contained. With Mr.
Wesley’s Sermons, Notes, Appeals, and Journal, with Mr. Fletcher’s works, and with the chief Wesleyan Biographies, she was well acquainted.150
In the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine for 1852, the testimony of James Blackett was published. “Shortly after” he had “obtained the pardoning mercy and love of God,” “he saw and felt that there still existed within him the remains of the carnal heart, and that he needed a richer and fuller baptism from on high. He earnestly sought the blessing of perfect love… He was enabled by faith to cast his soul upon Christ for the full salvation… and obtained unutterable rest in God. Sin was all destroyed. His soul was filled with holy love.”151 This occurred on November
10, 1798.
In 1832, a book of sermons “by different ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church” including Wilbur Fisk, Nathan Bangs, and Richard Watson contained a sermon by Aaron Lummus who affirmed that “on the day of Pentecost, the disciples… were all filled with the Holy Ghost, Acts ii.4. They were therefore emptied of sin, were wholly sanctified.”152
The editor (George Peck) of The Methodist Quarterly Review in 1841 carried an extensive discussion of the current status of the doctrine of Christian perfection in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He wrote: “The true Methodist ground [of entire sanctification] was so clearly stated, and so ably defended, and the whole subject so thoroughly investigated, by Messrs. Wesley and Fletcher, that but little has been done by subsequent writers of the same views but to repeat what they, in the same language, or in substance, had written.”153 He made the point that “as ministers
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, we have fully set our seal to the doctrine of Wesley and Fletcher upon this point.”154 Particular attention is called to the meaning
of the baptism with the Spirit. “But it [Christian perfection] is especially indicated as the work of the Holy Spirit by being denominated the baptism of the Holy Ghost,
sanctification of the Spirit &c., &c. The view of our authors [Wesley and Fletcher]
is, that the work is effected and sustained by the direct agency of the Spirit of God upon the
soul.”155
Jesse T. Peck, a prominent Methodist minister and author, expresses a worry about the neglect of the doctrine in 1849. He writes: “I fear attention has not been called so distinctly and forcibly to the doctrine of holiness as it should have been. Sermons have too generally stopped short of it.”156 He also noted that
some had not heard the doctrine preached for so long that they do not recognize it as Methodist belief. “Why do those charge its faithful advocates with preaching a new and strange doctrine in the church, though it is taught in the very style of the Scriptures--in the very language of Wesley and Fletcher?”157 Peck defined the
Traditional Wesleyan Theology Rejected toward the End of the 19th Century
The traditional Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification was uniformly embraced throughout its history since 1775 when Wesley gave his approval to Fletcher’s Last Check. I have yet to see in the official literature of Methodism where there was supposedly a difference between John Wesley and John Fletcher over the idea of Pentecostal sanctification until the middle of the 19th century as theological
Liberalism began weaving itself into the institutions of higher learning. When D. D. Whedon became the fifth editor of The Methodist Quarterly Review (1856 to 1884)159
he rejected Wesley’s idea of Christian perfection and denied the idea of a “second blessing.”160 Other prominent Methodists like James Mudge talked about growth,
and denied that one could be free from original sin.161 Mudge did not believe in
the possibility of full sanctification, and he rejected Pentecost as its basis.162 As
a basis for his interpretation, he cited John Wesley’s letter of caution to Joseph Benson against defining Christian perfection in terms of “receiving the Spirit.163
Based on this comment from John Wesley to Benson without considering the larger context of John Wesley’s affirmation of Pentecostal sanctification and his approval of Fletcher’s Essay on Truth and Last Check, Mudge wrongly assumed that Wesley linked Pentecost to initial regeneration.
Mudge’s revisionism of traditional Wesleyan theology brought Daniel Steele out of retirement after having been a professor of theology of Boston University in order to answer him. Steele was the founding president of Syracuse University and a prolific writer. He was well trained in classical studies and possessed a thorough grasp of the writings of John Wesley and John Fletcher, as well as being knowledgeable of the history of theology in general. Steele’s deep lament is summarized in words of great regret.
I am not a pessimist nor a friend of pessimism; I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet; yet something like the burden of a prophet is laid upon me, constraining me to cry aloud to the [Methodist Episcopal] Church of my father and mother--the Church in which I had my first and my second birth--the Church which nurtured me in her schools, and commissioned me to preach in her pulpits and to teach in her universities--a church to which I owe a debt too large for me to pay. It is exceedingly painful to note in this Church the first and the second indication of spiritual decay. The first has long grieved me; it is the neglect of those vital truths which nourish a stalwart spiritual life. The silence of the pulpit these many years respecting the full heritage of the believer, which is nothing less than is expressed in the words of Dr. McClintock, ‘The holiness of the human soul, heart, mind and will,’ has been broken at last by the voice of a son of the Church in the open and loud repudiation of that doctrine which is ‘the
inmost essence’ and ‘elemental thought’ of Methodism. This is the second token of spiritual decay, the second milestone on the downward road to spiritual death. The fact that this voice sounds out through the very trumpet which was made for the heralding of the glorious evangel of Christian perfection greatly aggravates my sorrow. Yet I am not surprised. The Church that incorporates in itself so large a segment of worldliness will sooner or later reject every doctrine hostile to a love of the world.164
Steele’s observation about “the silence of the pulpit these many years respecting the full heritage of the believer” was one of the reasons for the rise of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The phrase, “the baptism with the Holy Spirit,” was nuanced with a strong emphasis on the sudden moment of entire sanctification in the American Holiness Movement at the end of the 19th Century just as the leadership of the Methodist Episcopal Church was embracing theological Liberalism and the distinctive Wesleyan doctrinal beliefs were being marginalized.165
The patron saint of the holiness movement was Phoebe Palmer.166 Her
leadership and international influence emerged, as she became the editor of Guide
to Holiness. Her precursor was James Merritt, a prominent Methodist minister in
New England and a staff member of the Methodist Publishing Concern. Merritt started a publication to promote the cause of holiness, entitled, Guide to Christian
Perfection, in 1839.167 Stemming from the influence of Merritt and Palmer was the
phenomenal growth of the American Holiness Movement that is well-documented and explained in The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century by Melvin E. Dieter.168
“Pentecostal sanctification,” as Martin Wells Knapp (one of the prominent leaders of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement) particularly termed it,169 was not only a
common interpretation in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, but it became the preferred mode of speaking of holiness.170
Eventually under attack by the leadership of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the second half of the 19th century, the holiness movement organized
itself against the uprising of theological Liberalism and often separated itself into holiness denominations, although many leaders remained within the Methodist Episcopal Church. Daniel Steele, the first chancellor of Syracuse University and subsequently a professor of theology at Boston University, was the most scholarly and the most representative of the best thinking among holiness advocates. As a child Steele had learned from his mother about instantaneous sanctification through the baptism with the Spirit. In his first publication (Love Enthroned, 1875), he defined entire sanctification as being attained through the baptism with the Spirit, and he cited extensively from John Fletcher.171 In a sermon before the Boston University
School of Theology, May 30, 1871, he defined entire sanctification in reference to Fletcher’s concept of the baptism with the Spirit, insisting (unlike Fletcher), “it must be instantaneous.”172 This testimony came six months after his personal experience
of holiness.
There is no indication that he ever had any hesitancy about using the language of the baptism with the Spirit, although he recognized that John Wesley did not generally use this specific phrase in his published writings, and he recognized that the fullness of the Spirit may have different meanings, ranging from ecstatic fullness, prophetic fullness, to ethical fullness (Pentecostal sanctification).173
Everywhere in his writings and from his childhood he linked the Pentecostal baptism and fullness of the Spirit with entire sanctification. He specifically embraced Fletcher’s soteriological doctrine of dispensations, while rejecting the eschatological dispensationalism of the Plymouth Brethren and John Darby.174
Steele assumed that Wesley and Fletcher were in agreement and were the primary authorities of Methodist beliefs. Steele’s father-in-law was Amos Binney, whose widely-read Theological Compend of Christian Doctrine also embraced Pentecostal sanctification in 1839.175 The idea has been suggested that Steele added the theology
of Pentecostal sanctification later in his career and changed his language to include “the baptism with the Spirit,” but that report is not factual,176 although prior to his
own experience of holiness he preferred the idea of progressive sanctification. Unlike Fletcher, the organized holiness movement often considered full sanctification “as a terminal point with disappointing results,” as one of its prominent leaders, the late Hollis Abbott, admitted.177 J. Paul Taylor, a deceased bishop of the
Free Methodist Church and a prominent spokesperson for the organized holiness movement, also noted that “the church has suffered incalculable loss because so many of her members have regarded the Canaan rest as the terminus of a journey, instead of the opening of a new realm challenging to endless exploration.”178
A debate began in the 1970’s at the Wesleyan Theological Society over the meaning of Pentecost and its relationship to Christian perfection. This was a good sign that the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition was taking seriously its theological responsibility to speak faithfully and scripturally. That is why scholars in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition are now revisiting its classical sources in John Wesley and John Fletcher in order to recover a more authentic meaning of Christian perfection. This essay is intended to be part of that much-needed process of reassessment by understanding exactly the historiography of the Methodist/Wesleyan tradition.
Let me offer a few words about the development of this debate. The claim that Fletcher gave the proper interpretation of Wesley’s theology occasioned considerable discussion in the 1970’s. This dispute was an extension of the debate
